North Korean phone system being blocked....

[Snow]

Sorry, I posted this in LBN, didn't get any response & it fell off the front page in half-hour or so. I hope you folks have more sense I realize the implications: here it is....

I just saw this on the Los Angeles Korean TV news. It seems that since Monday foreigners - diplomats and the like - living in North Korea, mostly Pyoungyang, have been unable to make phone calls to any North Koreans. They can call up other foreigners, they can make calls out of the country, but they can't call up any locals. Since a lot of what these guys do is business sorts of things, this is a problem. More ominous, though, why would the NK government cut the diplomats off from being able to talk to the locals? This is very worrisome. Anyone else have any insight?

[iconoclastic cat]

1. I'm sorry, but I'm ignorant. I don't understand what you are implying.

Doesn't KJI regularly starve his own people, scream obscenities at Bush, and other sabre-rattling?

[ewagner]

2. It's not good news.

It's not clear who is behind it, but screwing up communications is usually a prelude to some kind of military adventure.

that's troubling.

[A_Possum]

3. Does seem odd

We know so little of what's going on there. I didn't know there were many diplomats living there.

[iconoclastic cat]

4. I still don't understand what could be happening.

Please clarify.

[politicat]

5. okay, back in the days of the "Red Menace" and Soviet Moscow, when

they were done talking and about to go to war or something equivalent, they cut off communications - stopped the mails, cut out the phones, recalled their diplomats and took the red phone off the hook. It never got that bad to my knowledge, but it did get bad. We know that KJI does a lot of the things that the old Soviet system was infamous for; he took the worst of capitalism, democracy and dictatorship communism and threw out the redeeming factors.

IF this isn't just some fuckup in the NK phone system (possible, but unlikely) it's very possible that KJI is getting ready to do something - like use some of his weapons or silly as this may be, march across one of the borders - and wants to make sure that advance knowledge does not leak out.

Watch this space for future developments.

Politicat

[iconoclastic cat]

6. Thanks a second time, poli.

Now, I agree that this sounds scary, but would KJI really be that determined to start a war?

[Snow]

7. That's just one of the possibilities

There could also be a palace revolt; there could be (very unlikely but possible) some sort of popular uprising - wouldn't be visible in Pyoungyang if it were out in the provinces, and a lot of those things are in Korea; the military might be getting fed up, although that's unlikely given the degree of privilege they have. I'd put my money on the palace revolt.

On edit:
here's an interesting link from the WaPo
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V114/N31/briefs2.31w.html

[Snow]

9. Sorry, just realized the link I cited above is ancient....

pay no attention....

[Snow]

8. Here's a link to the story I heard on TV....

seems it's originally from a Russian news agency:
http://english.kbs.co.kr/news/newsview_sub.php?menu=1&key=2004082512

-snip-
In Moscow, the Itar-Tass News Agency says the city telephone network in Pyongyang has been suspended for a third consecutive day.
A correspondent of the Russian news agency stationed in Pyongyang told KBS in a telephone conversation Tuesday that international calls can still be made from the North Korean capital, but that intra-city telephone service has been dead for the past three days.
-snip-

on edit: the original TASS story is here:
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=1166496&PageNum=0

[Robbien]

10. According to the Russians this is only a technical difficulty

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200408/200408250013.html

According to the Russian news agency Itar-Tass, the telecommunications disruptions are due to technical failures and that there seems to be no hidden political agenda. North Korea is one of the world's most-isolated countries and it is often difficult to gain full information about various occurrences there.

Itar-Tass added North Korean authorities are currently working to reconnect telephone lines and that services are expected to resume within a day.

The specific cause of disruptions has not been disclosed yet. North Korea experts say there are three telephone networks within Pyongyang. One for connecting international lines another for providing services within the city boundaries and the last one exclusively for international organizations stationed in Pyongyang the very one which broke down.

If the Russians believes there is no hidden political agenda, there probably isn't. The Russians distrust everyone.